Rene Cardenas, from Nicaragua, created the first Spanish-language MLB broadcasts in 1958, teaming with 1998 Ford C. Frick recipient Jaime Jarrin for the new West Coast Dodgers. He remained with the club through 1961 and then moved to the expansion Astros, pioneering Spanish language Baseball in Houston, as broadcast director and announcer from 1962 to 1977. He conceived and organized the first international Broadcasting Network in Spanish from Houston to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America.
In 1981, he returned to baseball establishing Spanish language Baseball in the American League, as broadcast director and announcer with the Texas Rangers. From 1982-1998 he again teamed with Jarrin on Dodger broadcasts. In 2000 Rene was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame of Nicaragua and in 2002, into the “Salon de la Fama del Museo Nacional del Patrimonio Hispano de los Estados Unidos” in Texas. He began his career at age 20, as principal broadcaster of the World Amateur Baseball Series XI in Managua, Nicaragua.
In 1972, he broadcast all the games of the World Amateur Baseball Series XX in the Same country and for many years he went to NIcaragua to broadcast winter baseball after the season. – Courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Frick Award Library of Broadcast Nominees Cardenas was inducted into the Broadcasters Wing of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame in 2002 at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas.